GRENADA ELECTIONS IN THE SEASON OF CARNIVAL

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 GRENADA 000092

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR WHA/CAR JONATHAN MITCHELL

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV GJ
SUBJECT: GRENADA ELECTIONS IN THE SEASON OF CARNIVAL


1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Grenadians describe the 2008 election cycle as
carnival-like (Grenada's 2008 Carnival will take place August 11
- 12) with political parties waving party colors and rushing
from point to point around the tri-island state staging
entertainment-fueled rallies. Several candidates have allegedly
received death threats, and many of post's interlocutors say
that this is the ugliest campaign season they have experienced
in recent memory, with the race focusing less on issues than
personal animosities. Election-related destruction of property
and verbal and physical attacks on opponents appear to be
increasing, despite party promises to run clean campaigns.
Rumors abound that even if the NDC wins a majority, the current
political leader will be pushed aside to make way for a more
radical leadership to grab power. Two candidates face criminal
charges, one for fraud and one for assault, but neither has
pulled out of the race. The U.S. has contributed funding and
personnel to the Organization of American States' (OAS) election
observer mission to be led by Deputy Secretary General Ramdin,
July 3 - 9. END SUMMARY

Campaign in Full Swing


2. (SBU) As the campaign enters its final week, the main
opposition party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC),is
hoping that the momentum for change that marked recent elections
elsewhere in the region will help sweep them into power in
Grenada. Hence, one of their three main slogans is "NDC, the
heartbeat of change". The NDC is running on a platform
promising to reduce the cost of living, provide free college
education for all who qualify, provide jobs and housing for all,
remove the hurricane reconstruction levy, and stimulate
agriculture. The party released its manifesto during the last
week in June -- a glossy, multi-page production that the New
National Party (NNP) promptly ridiculed at great length as
copied verbatim from the Barbados Democratic Labour Party's
(DLP) manifesto with a few word and picture changes. As the DLP
leadership has been advising the NDC leadership, as well as
providing monetary support, this is not surprising. The NDC is
defending itself against the plagiarism charge in this week's
press.


3. (U) The governing New National Party (NNP) is running on the
theme "let the progress continue". The party's platform
enumerates its accomplishments over the last 13 years and
promises continuing reconstruction, improvements to education
and social services. Prime Minister Keith Mitchell has used the
power of incumbency to resolve issues even as the party
campaigns. For example, he announced at the end of June a deal
with the two unions representing the majority of the public
service workers to establish a pension plan. The People's
Revolutionary Government had ended the public service workers
pensions in 1979 when it seized power, and this has been a major
bone of contention for all governments since then.


4. (U) The United Labour Platform (ULP),which brings together
the Grenada United Labour Party and the People's Liberation
Movement, has far less money than its two major rivals and is
therefore less of a presence in the election campaign. The ULP
claims to have the best chance of improving labor conditions of
all the parties. The party is also interested in offshore oil
and gas development, and has pledged to resolve once and for all
Grenada's maritime boundary disputes with Venezuela and other
Caribbean islands.

Voting Days - July 4 and 8


5. (U) In order to field a full contingent of police to maintain
order on Election Day, Grenada's Parliament in May amended the
country's election law to allow a separate voting day for the
approximately 900 members of the Royal Grenada Police Force
(RGPF). The police officers are not allowed to opt to vote on
the general election day. Thus, RGPF officers will vote on July
4 while the rest of the population goes to the polls July 8.
The head of the Parliamentary Elections Office has assured the
public that the police list will be available on July 3 and the
general list on July 5. NDC and non-governmental organizations
complain that this is not good enough, since the lists were
promised several weeks ago.


6. (SBU) OAS Deputy Secretary General Albert Ramdin is scheduled
to arrive in Grenada on July 3 to lead the OAS Election Observer
Mission (EOM). USOAS provided USD 55,000 to support the EOM.
Five officials from the U.S. Embassy in Bridgetown will
participate. The U.S. participation brings the number of
observers to approximately 27, close to the OAS goal of 30. NDC
announced publicly before they had met Ramdin in mid-June that
they did not believe he could be unbiased, and they have not
changed their stance. It would appear that they are positioning
the party to cry foul if they lose the election.


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Rumor, Threats, and Videotape


7. (SBU) Grenadians, as one RGPF officer recently admitted,
enjoy creating "malicious mischief". Rumor and innuendo have
run rampart. Alleged misdeeds of the PM and others in the
ruling New National Party (NNP) are being recycled, including
accusations that Mitchell took US$500,000 from German
businessman Eric Resteiner and that Deputy Prime Minister
Gregory Bowen demanded a bribe from a U.S. businessman in order
to issue a license to drill for oil and gas. The allegations
are not new but they have been reinvigorated by the campaign.
Reports circulated during the week of June 23 that the so-called
"briefcase videotape", allegedly showing Mitchell receiving
money from Resteiner, had finally surfaced. None of post's
interlocutors could actually say they had seen it. The Grenada
Today, an anti-NNP weekly, frustrated that the original tape was
not made public (it remains in the hands of Resteiner and/or his
attorney as far as we know) supposedly put together their own
version in 2005, which was almost immediately exposed as a fake,
and it is possible that the fake has resurfaced. Mitchell and
his wife were named last year in a civil suit in the United
States attempting to recover US$1 million from a range of
Grenadians and others alleged to have benefited from the fraud.


8. (SBU) On July 1, local rumor-mongerers struck again, this
time about Chinese- made tee-shirts. The People's Republic of
China (PRC) is allegedly providing most of the NDC's promotional
items, including yellow tee shirts with various party slogans,
billboards, posters, flyers, etc., in addition to large amounts
of cash. According to this latest rumor, the NNP asked the PRC
provide them with green tee shirts with their slogan but
discovered when the shipment arrived boxes full of yellow
tee-shirts with the NNP "let the progress continue" slogan on
them. The NNP supposedly refused delivery and the shirts sit
unclaimed at the port. We have no independent verification.


9. (SBU) Concerns about the pasts of several National Democratic
Congress (NDC) candidates as active members of the now-defunct
New Jewel Movement (NJM) of Maurice Bishop and Bernard Coard
[which fomented the 1979 coup and the subsequent repressive
People's Revolutionary Government (PRG)] are spoken of in
whispers. Some older Grenadians, especially those imprisoned by
the revolutionaries, fear that if NDC takes power, these
individuals will revert to type. In addition, there has been a
revival of longstanding rumors that, should the NDC win, current
NDC political leader Tillman Thomas would be pushed aside or
otherwise removed (we have heard each of these variations) so
that one of the former NJM members could take over.


10. (SBU) The liberal use of revolutionary-era language by NDC
candidates has exacerbated fears among some Grenadians that
intimidation could be used against voters when they cast their
ballots. The NNP's youngest candidate alleged in late June that
he and his mother have received death threats. Another NNP
candidate was told recently that "when the NDC wins, we will
deal with you". While the threats have not deterred either
candidate from running, both families are worried about their
safety. The police have called on the population to maintain
calm and the political parties to respect their opponents.
Mitchell and Thomas have also urged calm. Local
non-governmental organizations, which drafted a code of conduct
that all political parties have now signed, are expressing
concern about the increasing "tribalism" of the campaign
process. There are reports of tee shirts burned, billboards
vandalized, posters torn down, and verbal and physical attacks
on rival party supporters.


11. (SBU) Two candidates, one ULP, and one NNP, are campaigning
with criminal charges pending. ULP's Reynold Benjamin was
charged with fraud several months ago in connection with his
relationship with Capital Bank International, a local failed
institution. NNP's Fitzroy Bideau was charged on July 1 with
assault for grabbing and threatening a 17-year old girl after
she taunted him with his record as Commissioner of Police (COP).
NOTE: Bideau was COP during Hurricane Ivan in 2004 and was
fired for incompetence after he remarked that "police are people
too" in response to multiple reports of RGPF officers looting
abandoned shops and houses when they were supposed to be
stopping looters. Should they win seats and then be convicted,
special elections would have to be held.

COMMENT


12. (SBU) Grenada's election is too close to call at this point.
Grenadians are frustrated by the lack of solid information
coming out of the campaigns and the level of personal attacks.
About 21 percent of those polled recently said they were
undecided. Embassy contacts speculate that people do not trust
pollsters not to tell others how they will vote, as they
themselves would not keep someone else's vote a secret if they

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knew. Grenadians supporting the NNP read the result as positive
for their party, and those supporting the NDC say it means their
party will win. A third school of thought is that Grenadians
are waiting to see who will give them the best handout - an
electoral tradition in Grenada. Bushing, which also takes place
around major holidays, is a boon to the unemployed and involves
gangs of people paid by politicians to clear brush and clean
roads in their neighborhoods. Grenadians take pride in keeping
their villages clean and brightly painted, but in the run-up to
the election, the country is the cleanest it has been in a long
time. The violence, the death threats, and the use of political
party colors almost as gang colors has also turned many
Grenadians off. They say they will vote, but mostly they want
the process over with, regardless of who wins.
MCISAAC